Day Three: Villefranche (France)

Villefranche was one of our favorite places on the cruise. We pulled into the harbor for tending into the village while we were eating our breakfast on our balcony. The view was breathtaking and we could hardly wait to start exploring.




We had all elected not to take the side tours to either Nice, Monte Carlo or Cannes and we had no regrets at all. Most of the people who visited Monte Carlo to gamble did not fare well. At least we had trinkets to show for our spent money...lol. Instead we followed a walking tour through the winding, twisty and very narrow streets, stopping to shop as we went. The entire town goes up a large mountain as you can tell from the photographs. Many of the streets can not be navigated by car as they are a series of steps going up up up and, believe me, it was much easier walking back down.


We found a little train much like the Conch Train in Key West that gave us a pretty good over view of the village, the Citedel, the two clothing optional beaches and the quay. The guide and driver was a bit hard to understand but using our walking tour print out, we figured it out for the most part.






We ate lunch at a cute little cafe and walked some more, ending up at the top and roaming back down for the second time but through other streets. I was sad to see our visit here end.

E and I use a criteria for judging a city: would we want to spend a week there? Would we want to rent an apartment or a villa with friends or by ourselves and reside in that place for a solid week. So far the answers have been

Barcelona: YES
Villefrance: YES

Tomorrow is Livorno, Italy with side trips to Pisa and Lucca (a walled medieval city).

Thanks for looking. Off to Posh Scraps in Palm Harbor tonight for the crop with Diane and Jackie. I'm still not feeling tip top but tons better than yesterday. Long plane rides and me do not agree I guess.